A Fang by Any Other Name
by Ichabod Ebenezer
Summary: Sam and Dean meet an unexpected hitch in an otherwise routine job. Will the strange man who doesn't like killing and who claims to have a time machine help or hinder them? Short fanfic, the first I ever wrote. No, I don't own the characters, so stop asking. Rated T for gun violence and very minor language.


"Remind me again why we aren't going after Lilith?" Sam asked as Dean drove down the lonely tree-lined highway.

"Oh, would you change the station, Sammy? This song is getting old," Dean responded, frustrated.

"Dean, I don't have to remind you that if we don't kill her, you're going to hell in three weeks!"

"Well then I wish you wouldn't!" Dean shouted. He was silent for a moment, regaining his composure, but Sam said nothing. "Fine, you want to discuss it again. Let's. We don't know where she is, and we don't know how to kill her. That's just for starters. While I'm tearing up the walls doing useless research, there are monsters out there killing good people! If I'm going out, I'm taking a few of them with me."

"Okay," Sam conceded. "Fine. I'm just worried that while we're clearing out this nest of vamps, we'll miss another shot at her."

"What do you mean, 'Another shot'?" Dean said, taking his eyes off the road.

"I mean, if we hadn't been so quick to leave that station, maybe Hendricks would still be alive and Lilith wouldn't."

"Or the two of us would be dead alongside him and the virgin."

"Nancy," Sam said quietly.

"What?"

Sam paused a moment and said, "Her name was Nancy."

Dean was quiet for a long time, and only the hum of the passing road could be heard.

Finally he spoke up. "So what's this girl's name?"

Sam turned over a page in his notebook. "Sonia. Ten years old, from Devon. Her parents reported her missing yesterday after she didn't return from a friend's house. The father went looking for her and only found her bike."

"But, vamps. She's either dead or turned by now, right?"

"She fits the profile of several disappearances going back twelve years. The boys stay missing, but the girls get dumped in the River a week later with their throats bitten out. If the nest sticks to their pattern, we've got five days to find her."

"And we think she'll be here why? We're 30 miles outside Devon."

"There were several disappearances 50 years ago. At the time, they suspected a woman…" Sam checked his notes again. "A Signora Galletti. She ran a school in town, but she owned property out here. It was her school kids that went missing. They let her go because they couldn't find any proof, and another body showed up while they had her in custody."

"They didn't know about the nest."

"Exactly." Sam reached into the back seat and rummaged around until he found his laptop. He opened it up, and quickly pulled up a couple photos, side by side. He turned the laptop to face Dean. Dean waited until he was on a straight stretch again and looked over the photos Sam had brought up.

"The one on the left is Signora Galletti, from the original case," Sam said of the grainy black and white newspaper photo. "The one on the right is from a security camera near the scene yesterday."

"She's looking pretty good for nearing 90 years old," Dean said and turned back to driving. "Okay. So we hit the farmhouse. Looks like we've got a couple hours of sunlight left, and we should be there in just under an hour." Dean popped the tape in and floored it. Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' started blasting.

* * *

Dean parked the car behind a stand of trees, out of sight of the farm house. Sam popped the trunk and lifted the false floor, propping it up with a shotgun. He pulled out a machete, gave it a good swing, and handed it to Dean before pulling out another. Dean slid it under his belt, then reached around behind his back and retrieved a pearl handled pistol. He ejected the magazine, checked it quickly and re-inserted it with a click.

Sam checked his own gun and slipped it into the small of his back and pulled his shirt down over it. He pulled out a flashlight and tested it before putting it into an inside jacket pocket. He tested a second one and handed it to Dean before dropping the shotgun and closing the trunk. In all, it took less than a minute from parking the car to locked-and-loaded.

The two crouched low and exited the tree line, making a swift bee-line toward the farmhouse. The sun was low on the horizon above the hills behind the farmhouse. They had less than an hour until night fell.

Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing sound behind them. At first they thought it was an alarm of some sort, but the wind picked up as it started and the two had the sense of something physical nearby. Dean was the first to react, drawing his gun and looking for the source of the sound. "Sam!" he cried.

Great. A simple matter of a nest of vamps. Why does something always come along and complicate things? Sam and Dean both found the source of the sound at the same time, but neither one found anything to say. This was new. A blue box came into view, then faded into invisibility, but a second later it was back, and gone again. Sam looked at Dean, Dean looked back at Sam with wide eyes. Finally it solidified, and the wheezing sound stopped.

Dean glanced back at Sam momentarily, then faced the box, doubled his grip, and started shooting. Sam followed suit. If they were going to wake the vamps, the sound this thing made would have done it anyway.

There was no sound of a ricochet, but there didn't seem to be any real damage either. They both lowered their guns. "Dean?" Sam said, "What the hell?"

"I don't know Sam, give me a minute!" came the reply. Dean searched for anything that told him what this thing was. Well, the words "Police Box" on the top were a dead give-away, but that didn't mean anything to him. He searched through his memory of his father's journal for anything like this, but he came up empty.

Then the door opened with a creaking sound, and a tall thin man in a bowtie stepped out. He brightened into a smile as he saw the Winchesters. They raised their guns again. "Aw! Lovely!" he said, pointing at them. He took a deep breath through his nose. "Hunting vampires, I'm guessing - based on the smell of silver and the machetes in your belts," he continued. He turned and rubbed the outside of the box lovingly and licked his finger. "Though I don't really appreciate you shooting up my TARDIS," he said a little more quietly. He turned back with a clap and smiled again. "But. No harm done, all forgiven. What is the situation?"

Sam looked back at Dean, not dropping his gun for a moment. "What the hell?" he said again. "What the hell is he, and how do we kill it?"

The man said, "I'd rather prefer you didn't, but bullets do a fine job. We've all been there and done that," he said, snapping his fingers and pointing at the two of them. "But the point is we're all here now and there's work to do. Holy water doesn't bother me a bit by the way, and nor does silver." Dean raised his gun again, and the man ducked and held up his hands. "But it will in a bullet!" he yelled.

He slowly opened one eye, feeling for the moment that they weren't going to shoot straight away, and stood up straight again. He ticked off on his fingers. "Okay, I don't change shape, I don't eat people, I don't turn people into 'one of me'," he said, making air quotes. "I bleed and I die. A bit more often than I would like, but who's perfect?" He thought for a second. "Did I forget anything vital? I have a time machine, but we'll get back to that a little later shall we? More pressing issues? Vampire nest? Ring any bells? I'm the Doctor, by the way." He held out his hand.

He talked so fast they had little time to think, much less act. But now he had paused. They watched him carefully while still processing everything he said. Sam was going to go with "What the hell?" again, but stopped himself. "Do we shoot him?" he said instead.

"I don't know!" Dean shouted.

"If I could state my opinion once again?" the man said, raising his hands. "Please don't?"

Dean lowered his gun and un-cocked the trigger. "We can always shoot him later," he said. "He looks afraid of bullets." He stuck the gun in his belt, then reached into his back pocket and produced handcuffs. "But there's no reason to take chances."

"Okay, handcuffs, now that I can deal with. I used to know this woman... No reason to mention her though now. Forget I said anything. Ow!" Dean smiled and cranked them up one more notch.

"Tell you what Sam. He can go in front. We can _use_ a meat shield."

"Dean," Sam said, "I think he came here for a reason. What if he has more to offer us than, you know, meat?"

"Fine. Why are you here?" Dean said shaking the Doctor. "What do you know?" Dean said and twisted his arm behind his back.

"Well, for one, they aren't vampires in the classical sense, but they do have nasty teeth and they are keen on doing bad things, so yes. Call them vampires if it makes you feel better. And for two, destroying the nest won't help. And for three," he stopped walking. "There's a little girl in there that I can still save." This seemed to get both of their attention. Dean loosened his grip.

"Ah, good, we're on the same page now. Quiet now though, it's possible one of them was alerted by the noise, perhaps we should circle around in case they sent someone to check? They have invented the technology we call brollies? Parasols? Bumbershoots, if you prefer? What is this, 2030? Tastes a bit like 20-"

"Shut up!" Dean said and grabbed him by the collar. Yanking him to the side. "It's 2007. And, GOD, does this guy ever shut up? Yes, we know how to 'circle around'. This isn't our first trip to the zoo."

"I don't do shut up too often," the Doctor said, a bit too loudly because he was being choked by a bowtie at the time, "I tried it once and regretted my decision almost immediately, because people died. Turns out people _think_ if you give them a word in edge-wise, and oddly they sometimes disagree with me."

"Shut up!" Sam said through his teeth, cocking his gun again and putting it to the Doctor's head.

"Alright," the Doctor said quietly. "Regretting it already."

Sam pulled out a flask of holy water and dowsed him. The Doctor kept his mouth shut, and there was no smoke or steam. "Exorcizamus te,omnis immundus spiritus,omnis satanica potestas-" Sam started, holding out one hand with a rosary clutched in it. Dean rolled his eyes and yanked the Doctor up and pushed him in front, around the perimeter of the farm. Sam covered the direct approach in case one of the creatures had been alerted. Beside the bumbershoot thing, there was a line of trees that they had been planning to use for cover. Either way, sunlight doesn't bother them that much.

* * *

"So what, you're telling me they are aliens?" Dean said when they got to the cover of the barn and the Doctor had time to tell his rather extensive story.

"Yes, aliens. Called Saturnyns, and closer to fish than humans, but being aliens, they have an entirely different DNA structure, so not related to fish at all. Can we go back? Yes aliens. They impregnate humans through hollow tubes in their fangs. Incubation is fairly quick, and they infect the mind. However, the larvae also require a psychic link to the parent to mature, so if we do manage to get her out of there quickly enough, and sever the link, the girl can still be saved."

"Okay. Got it. Yadda, yadda, yadda," said Dean. "Sever the link. That part we're good at." He pulled out his partially-expended clip and inserted a new one.

"No," said the Doctor.

"Pardon?" said Dean, cocking an eye. "You do understand that's what we came here for right? We're all about saving the girl, but the monsters have to die."

"The juveniles are in puberty, and hormones are raging. There's no rationalizing with them, there's no saving them. I get it. I regret it, but I get it. But the adult must be given a choice. I can take it somewhere else, somewhere no one is at risk. Nothing sentient anyway. It will be far enough away that the psychic link is severed. We had five days' time-" he tried to pull an arm out in front of him far enough to see his watch. He seemed to be wearing several at once. After a double-take, Dean realized he was also wearing a pocket watch. What kind of freak was this guy? "-as of about 14 hours ago. If I can convince it to leave, it doesn't have to die."

"So, what?" asked Sam. "Are you saying no killing on this one?"

"No. Not if I can help it. And I _can_ ," he empathized, leaning forward on the chair he was tied to, "- I _can_ help it if you don't stop me trying." The Doctor had a strange way of going from completely eccentric to completely serious in the blink of an eye.

"Dean, maybe we should listen-" Sam started.

"Bull-"

"Dean, just listen," Sam continued. Dean did shut up, but it was obvious from the look on his face that he wanted to say a lot of things. Most of them expletives. Sam paused, gathering his words, then continued. "What if he knows what he's talking about? What if he's seen this kind of thing before? I mean, he had a name for them that isn't in dad's journal. What if what he's saying is true?" He motioned with his head to the side and in a knowing way said through his teeth, "What if he really has a time machine?"

Dean stood there for several seconds more, eyes darting in all directions, considering everything Sam had to say, and getting all the implications. "Okay. For now." He untied the Doctor and lifted him up by the handcuffs. He held the Doctor's face close to his own. "But only for now. Things go south, and I'm telling you, I'm taking charge. And I'm not going to ask for your opinion. I'm putting a bullet through that thing and lighting it on fire. We good?"

"Better than good," the Doctor smiled. "Shiny. Any chance we can negotiate the handcuff situation?" he said, looking between the two of them.

Dean pushed him forward. "Let's move." Sam looked at him with a pleading expression. Dean looked back at him uncompromisingly. "I'm still thinking meat shield."

They crouched and walked, in silence now, toward the house. The sun was close to setting now, so time was of the essence. Sam was still thinking that if they just un-handcuffed this guy, an extra gun would be useful right about now. The Doctor fell slightly behind as they approached. He reached around from behind with his cuffed hands and popped up his inside pocket. He caught his sonic screwdriver in his teeth. He looked around to make sure the Winchesters weren't looking. He flipped it around and caught the other end in his teeth. He pointed it at the cuffs and activated it. 'WHRR-RRR-RRR-CLICK!' The cuffs fell off.

Dean turned around. "Son of a spotted dick!" he said.

The Doctor looked around. "I... um... I don't even..." He continued to glance between the two of them, confused, as he took the sonic out of his mouth. Sam looked confused too.

Dean looked at Sam with an impish smile, then seeing his expression, his smile fell. "It's a British food whose name I happen to find hilarious!" He tilted the gun slightly and shrugged. "I was sure you were going to get that." He ignored the lack of cuffs and turned his attention back to the house.

"Ah, I'll just get that," whispered the Doctor. He ran forward to the door and used the sonic on it. It opened with a faint click. "See? I'm of some use already." He smiled and placed the sonic back in his pocket. "After you two." Dean shook his head slightly, but otherwise didn't react. He entered the house first and quickly swept his gun across the room. Sam followed in a practiced manner and swept the room in the opposite direction. The Doctor followed after the two of them with kung-fu hands extended. Dean pointed at a closed door between them and the kitchen. Sam walked swiftly but silently to the door and grabbed the handle. He glanced back at Dean who nodded. Sam opened the door and swept again. It was a staircase leading down. Dean pointed his gun over Sam's shoulder then tapped Sam on the back.

Sam flipped the switch, but the light was either burned out or destroyed. The Doctor pointed his sonic over Sam's shoulder too, illuminating the stairs with a green glow, but also making that whirring noise again. Dean looked over his shoulder at the Doctor, annoyed, then pulled out a flashlight and clicked it on. "Yes, um, that works too," the Doctor whispered and shut off his sonic. Sam pulled out his own flashlight and turned it on as well. They headed into the basement, Winchesters side by side, Doctor holding both shoulders, but ready if kung-fu became necessary.

There was no one in the basement, but an obvious hole in the wall. "Ah, now this makes sense. Well water. Someone drilled for it at some point in the past. There had to be an underground river, and the Saturnyns just had to go sideways to get to it. Clever when you think about it. But since you two are concentrated on killing, you probably aren't all that interested in clever. Still, I'm on your side. I've got your back and all that." He patted them both on the back and whispered, "Into the hole now. You first."

Sam and Dean entered, still side by side and guns and flashlights pointing forward. They'd been in similar situations in the past, but none of them were comfortable. They also weren't too sure about the guy who 'had their back'. There was a widening up ahead. Dean shut off his light. Sam pointed his downward. Still enough to make sure they don't trip, but hopefully little enough to be sure they don't wake something used to darkness. They stepped in some water, causing a splash. This water was forming a pool up ahead, so they stepped to the sides to avoid making any more noise.

The Doctor whispered, but it echoed anyway, "The males of the species are totally aquatic. They need water to survive. Think of them as tadpoles. No, wait. Leaches. No, Lachrymose leaches. Oh, not too much into children's literature I'm thinking. Okay, squiggly, squirmy, swimmy things with way too many teeth. The female of the species are girls. Just girls. Not quite as scary, I guess, but they are just as bite-y. He grabbed Sam's flashlight and pointed it up at his face. "Beware." Sam pulled it back and continued on down the passageway.

They came to another chamber with water running through it. So far, the Doctor checked out right. Somehow neither of the Winchesters were happy about it. The Doctor whispered audibly. "Wouldn't touch the water if I were you."

Sam and Dean both turned and gave him identical expressions. "We're not idiots," it said.

The Doctor mouthed the word "Sorry," and they turned back around to find two men standing in front of them. The men attacked quickly with some sort of blunt object and knocked out the brothers.

The Doctor stood there for a moment with his hands up. He tried to talk his way out of it. "Ah, you know, technically speaking, I brought them to you, so you should be thanking me. I'm the Doctor. I'm here to help." The man directly in front of him opened his mouth and hissed, showing a circle of fine, pointy teeth. The Doctor turned around, but there was another one behind him. A crack on the skull later, everything went black.

* * *

"So, Tadpoles, huh?" Dean said to the Doctor when he woke, tied to a chair.

"Um, well yes, until they mature. Still, nothing to fear. We're still alive, so that means they want something more from us than 'meat'. Good news, right?"

Dean tried again to shake his bonds and break the chair. Sam saw their guns on a table nearby and started hopping his chair over toward it, making too much noise. One of the boys showed up, and two more swiftly followed. "Hello," the Doctor said with a smile. "Saturnyns, yes? Lovely. Have I got the place for you!" The vamp walked past with a mouth-full-of-fangs smile. "Any chance your mum is about?" the Doctor tried again. The vamp ignored him and continued walking and smiling but there was a hissing sound in the darkness that surrounded them.

"You know our kind," a woman said, stepping into the light. She petted Dean's legs, walking around in a sultry, circular pattern.

"Yes, actually," the Doctor said, "We've met a couple of times. But things never quite ended the way I would have wanted. Look, I know I don't appear to be in a bargaining position at the moment, but I have an offer for you that you should really consider."

"Is it these two?" one of the males said. The Winchesters continued to strain at their bonds.

"No," the Doctor replied. "They are not on the table. But they won't kill you if you listen to me. They've promised not to, and I for one believe them."

"So who's to stop me from killing them?" she said, caressing Sam's face. Sam sneered, powerless against the tight ropes holding him to the chair, but he pulled his face away from her hand.

The Doctor turned serious again. "I am. Look, I tried to save your sister, Rosanna Caliverri. I tried saving your mother Antonia Villicette. But they didn't listen to me and they died." He jumped in his seat, struggling to free himself from his bonds. "You don't understand. I'm not here to stop you, I'm here to save you. You are the last of your kind, and you are important - if you just don't take another life," he said, emphasizing each word. "I can take you somewhere safe, where you won't be hunted."

She smiled, continuing her circle, and caressed the Doctor's face this time. "They think they are hunters, but I think I've shown that they are the hunted. You see, I've got a psychic link to my children, but I'm just generally psychic. Your paper won't work on me, and I know it's in your pocket. I know what your backup plan is, and it's not going to work either. These two have no plan at all, so no threat there." Sam and Dean looked at each other. Their expression said she was right.

She crouched in front of the Doctor. "Oh," she said, pulling a frown. "It's over. I've won, and all of your precious little humans will soon host my children. Plan B," she said. She put a fist in front of his face and made a fizzling sound as she pulled her hand back and wiggled her fingers, like fireworks disappearing into the night. "Gone."

"Think again bitch," Dean said, and turned, raising both feet and kicking Sam's chair as hard as he could. It smashed against the table and Sam grabbed a gun. He turned and shot the guy standing behind the Doctor, then the one behind Dean. He threw the gun to his other hand and shot the third while shaking the roped chair remains from his arm.

He had the gun on the female, who suddenly understood the threat. "Wait Sam!" the Doctor said and leaned forward toward Signora Galletti, showing absolutely no fear. "One more chance."

She instantly changed into her natural form. Her head did indeed look like a fish, with large eyes on the side of her head, a mouth full of teeth like an angler fish, and what looked like gills just behind her jaw line. Other than her head, the rest of her body was black. Sam couldn't tell whether she was wearing clothing or whether this was just how her scaly body naturally looked. She had a spikey sort of Elizabethan collar around her neck, and arms twice as long as a human's. She had two pairs of insect like legs, and she was dragging behind a lower body that reminded Sam of an earwig. She screeched loudly and swung back one arm, claws outstretched, as if to disembowel the Doctor.

The Doctor flinched, but Sam didn't. He blasted her several times, and she fell to the ground.

The Doctor stared at the dying alien for a long while. "Fetch the young lady, would you?" he requested in a flat voice when he finally spoke. He watched the Saturnyn matron with quite a sour expression as the life left her. "Someone let me out of this chair," he said quietly.

Dean freed himself and scoffed at the Doctor. "What, can't do it yourself?"

"No actually," he angled his head toward the pocket containing his sonic. "doesn't work on wood. Also I'm trying to control my anger over what was just done. You do understand that was the end of an entire species. One I came here to save."

Dean started working on the knots holding the Doctor in place. "Yeah, well, you're alive, Sammy's alive, I'm alive. The monsters are dead. I'm going to drink hard, sleep well and call this a good day."

"How did you manage to come up with that trick without her reading your thoughts?" the Doctor asked.

"She was looking for a plan. I didn't have one, I just acted," he shrugged.

The Doctor was released. He flexed his wrists, but said nothing. He stood and went after Sam. Sam still used the combination of gun and flashlight, still on alert, still worried about a potential current threat. The Doctor was no longer concerned, if he ever was. At the moment he looked quite depressed. If he'd done something differently...  
Sam found the girl. "Dean," he said, "Doctor!" The Doctor perked up slightly and ran to examine the girl. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver again and shone it in each of her eyes.

"Hey, you beauty," he said kindly, but softly, "How are you doing? Are you alright? What's your name?"

The girl appeared groggy, but roused slightly by the light of the sonic. "Uh, my name's Sonia," was about as much as she could say.

"Sonia! Brilliant name. There's a very old tale of a warrior woman named Sonia, did you know that? She was a survivor, just like you. Think you can stand?" He extended the end of the sonic with an audible click and the green light went off. He appeared to be reading it for some reason even though it was obviously too dark in there and it didn't appear to have any writing on it. He collapsed it and returned it to his pocket. "There you go Sonia. Up on your feet." Sam took one arm and the Doctor took the other.

Sam felt like he should say something. "We'll get you back to your family."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "We can walk back to my TARDIS, quick jaunt westward two counties, Bob's your uncle, and we go our separate ways." He looked meaningfully at Sam. "Hopefully for good."

* * *

When they reached the TARDIS, Dean said, "So, what, we're all getting in that little phone booth looking thing?"

"Not if you don't want to. I'll get Sonia back home and you two go your way. Toodles!" He opened the door and escorted Sonia inside.

"Uh-uh, Chuckles," Dean said, raising his gun. "We're not letting her out of our sight until she's back with her family."

The Doctor raised his hands with a sigh. "Understood. The guy with the gun is the one in charge. He opened the door a little wider. After you?"

Sam and Dean walked inside. Dean walked backward so he could cover the Doctor the whole time. "Dean!" he heard Sam say a moment before he bumped into him. Sam had stopped walking. Dean turned and swept the box before realizing what he was looking at. Despite the fact that it looked like a blue box with room for four tightly-packed on the outside, they were now in a very large room with corridors leading off (assumedly to other rooms) in several directions. The room itself was dome shaped and orange. There were stairs leading up to a scaffolding that surrounded the main feature of the room; a six-sided console covered in knobs, levers, dials, switches, something that looked like a pachinko machine, and many other indefinable devices.  
He lowered his gun slowly and gave a half-smile. "Well, that's impressive," he said.

The Doctor walked in and closed the door. "I actually prefer when they say 'bigger on the inside', but that will do. So!" he clapped his hand and ran to the console, walking around it, flipping levers and pressing buttons, seemingly at random. He paused with a big grin on his face. "Hold onto something?" It took a moment before anyone reacted, but the girl was first. She grabbed the railing. Sam grabbed her and then the railing as well. Dean grabbed a lever on the console with his free hand, not letting go of his gun. The Doctor's grin widened, and he flipped the biggest lever on the console. There was a shudder and something looking like glass tubes in the center of the console started rising and falling. The shuddering and shaking only got worse. The world seemed to fall to the left, then it righted itself. Sam held Sonia more tightly as she screamed. There was that whooshing sound they'd heard earlier, and seconds later the Doctor flipped the lever the other way and everything stopped.

The Doctor laughed like a mad-man and ran to the door. "All coming?" It took Sam and Dean a moment to react, but the girl ran to the door, and they followed.

Dean paused at the door for a moment, looking around to verify that they were actually somewhere else. Then he turned and grabbed the Doctor by the bow-tie. In a low voice he said, "Look, the girl is going to be okay, right? I mean, you know that for a fact? No guesswork? We won't have to come back and deal with her later?"

The Doctor gave Dean a sympathetic smile and put both hands on his shoulders, saying, "She's going to be perfectly fine. The parasite is already dying. In a matter of hours there will be nothing left of it and this ordeal will soon be a distant memory." He patted Dean's face in a patronizing way, which annoyed the hell out of him. Then he said, "We should wait here until she gets indoors. Less questions that way."

Dean smiled and pulled a badge out of his pocket. He flashed it at the Doctor, putting his gun away. 'Agent Clapton', it read. "We've got that covered".

The Doctor was surprised, but with a huge smile on his face. "Oh! I've got one of those too!" He pulled the psychic paper from his pocket and flashed it at Dean, then looked at it himself. "Agent Beethoven?" He looked aghast, then embarrassed. "Um, perhaps you should walk her home."

Contrary to what the Doctor had said, there weren't many questions. A minute later, Sonia was reunited with a grateful family and the Winchesters left them to their celebration.

The Doctor welcomed them back into the TARDIS. "Now!" he said, clapping his hands again, "Two counties eastward, you two are back at your car and we can all call it a night." He ran around flipping switches and pushing buttons again.

It was Sam who pulled his gun this time. "Stop, right there," he said. "November 2nd. 1983. Lawrence, Kansas." Dean raised his gun as well, not saying anything, but obviously in total agreement.

The Doctor's expression changed to one of sadness and sympathy. Maybe even pity. He pushed another button and walked slowly around the console toward them. He sat on the railing which goes around most of the console, looking dejected, before looking them in the eyes. "I can't."

Sam raised his voice. "Time machine. Yes you can!" His eyes darted to the console, but it only took him a moment looking at that complex hodge-podge beast of a thing to know he'd never be able to work it.

"It's a fixed point in time," the Doctor said softly. "It can't be changed. Your mother WILL die that day no matter how many times we try to stop it. The only thing I could do is take you back there to witness it over and over again. Please. You don't want to do this." He got off the railing and walked back around the console. "I'm so sorry. Plus," he said, with his back to them, and pointed toward the ceiling, circling his finger around. "Temporal state-of-grace. Your guns won't work in here." He flipped that biggest lever again.

The TARDIS shifted and Sam and Dean grabbed the railing again. When it righted itself, Dean tried firing a few times, just to make sure. The Doctor was true to his word. He flipped the lever back, and the TARDIS set down. The Doctor walked them to the door and the Winchesters stepped outside. The black Impala was waiting for them next to a clump of trees. The door slammed shut behind them. "Sorry!" the Doctor said again, but muffled by the door this time.

The Winchester brothers watched as the TARDIS faded noisily out of existence.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked, watching the patch of ground where the time machine had just been.

"The usual I guess. Head back to a cheap-ass motel, get a few hours well deserved sleep and fix someone else's problem again tomorrow." The two of them walked back to the car and headed off. The Clash's "Police and Thieves" was playing on the tape deck.


End file.
